Sermon Tone Analysis
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1 Thess 5:1-11 READY OR NOT (idea from Lee Eclov)
Introduction:
A. Some people think believing in an afterlife is dangerous.
Illus.: A recent issue of TIME magazine was all
about the brain.
The lead article, “The Mystery of Consciousness,” was by Dr. Steven Pinker,
Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard.
While marveling at the workings of the brain, he clearly
thinks we have only the brain—no eternal soul.
At the end of the article he wrote, “And when you think
about it, the doctrine of a life-to-come is not such an uplifting idea after all because it necessarily
devalues life on earth.
Just remember the most famous people in recent memory who acted in
expectation of a reward in the hereafter: the conspirators who hijacked the airliners on 9/11.
“Think, too, about why we sometimes remind ourselves that ‘life is short.’
It is an impetus to extend
a gesture of affection to a loved one, to bury the hatchet in a pointless dispute, to use time productively
rather than squander it.
I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that
every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.”
[1/29/07, p.70]
B. No Christian should disagree “that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift,” but
what difference does it make if you believe that Jesus is coming back?
He says such beliefs are a
liability—devaluing life in the here-and-now.
C.
Last week we thrilled to the promise of the second coming: vv.16-17...
It is with the Lord’s shout and
the last trumpet ringing in our imaginations that we turn today to the next verses—1 Thess.
5:1-11...
So
what difference does it make if you believe that Jesus is coming back?
What good will it do?
Dr.
Pinker says “nothing gives life more purpose than” knowing these are the only moments we have.
The
Bible says, Nothing gives life more purpose than knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back.
This text tells us what good it does to believe:
I. NO MATTER WHEN IT COMES, WE ARE READY FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD (5:1-5)
A. The Day of the Lord is a biblical certainty.
It is that time when God settles accounts, when ‘the author of
the play walks out upon the stage,’ to paraphrase C. S. Lewis.
Zephaniah 1:14-18 says, “The great day
of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly.
Listen!
The cry on the day of the LORD will be bitter, the
shouting of the warrior there.
That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, ... a day of
trumpet and battle cry...
I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because
they have sinned against the LORD...
In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he
will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth.”
The Day of the Lord begins when Jesus comes
back.
And it is the point of no return.
No going back.
No making amends.
B. The Day of the Lord is certainly coming, and suddenly.
[5:1-3] Paul uses two analogies: “Like a thief in
the night” tells us that the Day will be “sudden and unexpected,” while the second phrase, “as labor
pains on a pregnant woman,” emphasizes that the Day will be “sudden and unavoidable.”
John Stott
says one phrase tells us that there will be no warning, while the other, that there will be no escape.
And
this is all the more terrible because people have an overwhelming sense of false security.
A literal
translation would be something like this: “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’—Sudden
destruction comes on them!” Illus.: T. S. Eliot was a poetic Christian prophet.
Here are some lines from
his “Choruses from ‘The Rock’”:
And the wind shall say: “Here were a decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls...
Though you forget the way to the Temple,
There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger.
[Collected Poems, pp.103-104]
C. Eliot also wrote,
O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions...
2
We do not need to be caught unawares when the Stranger comes because we are Day people, not night
people (vv.4-5).
Christians, through their faith in Christ, have already entered safely into the Day of the
Lord.
All around us, people continue to live in the deep darkness that precedes the dawn of that Day.
But we live in that Day now, already.
We have passed through dark death and judgment’s night in
Christ.
It is as though we live in a Pre-Day light.
We have given up our love of darkness.
We have
nothing to hide anymore, nor do we want to live shrouding our beliefs or behavior in shadows, nor
spiritually inebriated.
We are children of the Light and of the Day.
SUMMARY: So what difference does it make that we believe in the second coming of Christ?
As children of
the day, we are ready for the Day of the Lord.
Our treasures are stored up in heaven, and having already
been born again, we do not fear the birth pains of the Lord’s coming.
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